Filed under: Books, Conferences, Uncategorized, WWI | Tags: Alvin Coox, Bianka Adams, Brian Neumann, Bruce I. Gudmundsson, Conrad Crane, Counterinsurgency, David Crist, Edward Marolda, Geoffrey Parker, Gerhard Gross, Iran, John Kuehn, Julian Corbett, Kelly DeVries, Mark Reardon, Michael Neiberg, Military Classics Seminar, Randy Papadopoulos, Seven Years War, Shane Story, Stuart Goldman, Thirty Years War, Timothy Travers
I’d fallen off on my attendance at the Military Classics Seminar, but if you’re a historian or military history aficionado, you should be attending these. They’ve changed the location of the meetings to the Athena Pallas Greek Restaurant (located at 556 22nd Street, South, Arlington, VA 22202) but the concept remains the same.
Each month, we gather to have a few drinks, enjoy dinner and hear someone give an oral review of a military history book. Some are classics, but some are more modern. Of course, the grandest benefit of attending is meeting your peers. There are military historians from every branch, authors of all kinds, retired military officers and interested amateurs like myself. Some of the greatest benefit to the meetings is the discussion between the attendees throughout the evening. It wanders across all periods of history, including sometimes dealing with personal experiences, and across all kinds of topics.
The dinners cost $35 and there’s a book raffle (I always put in an extra $5 and come away with a book a few times a year). We gather at 5:30pm for a social hour, followed by dinner at 6:30pm and the presentation at 7:30pm. There is some parking in the restaurant’s lot and some along neighboring streets.
Make your reservation no later than the Wednesday prior to the meeting by replying Eric Joyce at this e-mail address militaryclassics@gmail.com or to Bob Goldich by phone at (703) 359-1074. Pay for the meal with check or cash ($35) at the entrance to the meeting room. Those who make a reservation and do not show are still obligated for the cost of the dinner.
September 25, 2018 (one week delay because of Yom Kippur)
Parker, Geoffrey. The Thirty Years War. 1984.
Speaker: Kelly DeVries, Loyola University
October 16, 2018
Kuehn, John T. America’s First General Staff: A Short History of the Rise and Fall of the General Board of the Navy, 1900-1950. 2017.
Speaker: Edward J. Marolda, U.S. Naval Institute
November 20, 2018
Coox, Alvin D. Nomonhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939. 1985.
Speaker: Stuart Goldman, Scholar in Residence, National Council on Eurasian and East European Research
January 15, 2019
Corbett, Julian S. England in the Seven Years War: A Study in Combined Strategy. 1907.
Speaker: Randy Papadopoulos, Secretariat Historian, Department of the Navy
February 19, 2019
Travers, Timothy. The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front, and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918. 1987.
Speaker: Bruce I. Gudmundsson, DPhil, Quantico, Virginia
March 19, 2019
Crane, Conrad C. Cassandra in Oz: Counterinsurgency and Future War. 2016.
Speaker: Shane Story, Director, General Histories Division, U.S. Army Center of Military History
April 16, 2019
Crist, David. The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty Year Conflict with Iran. 2012.
Speaker: Mark Reardon, Senior Historian, Histories Directorate, U.S. Army Center of Military History
May 21, 2019
Gross, Gerhard P. The Myth and Reality of German Warfare: Operational Thinking from Moltke the Elder to Heusinger. 2016.
Speaker: Bianka Adams, Historian, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
June 18, 2019
Neiberg, Michael. Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I. 2013.
Speaker: Brian F. Neumann, Historian, Contemporary History Division, U.S. Army Center of Military History
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